Claire the Farm Girl
by Quirke
Summary: Don't you just hate stubborn people? See, I'm not a stubborn person. I'm a friendly person. I'm a people's person. I like to make people feel welcome - appreciated. So when I find myself unappreciated, I get annoyed. Really annoyed. CLAIRExMARLIN
1. Chapter 1

Don't you just hate stubborn people?

See, I'm not a stubborn person. I'm a friendly person. I'm a _people's_ person. I like to make people feel welcome - appreciated. So when I find _myself _unappreciated, I get annoyed. Really annoyed. I can't help it. I've got a temper, see. My father always wondered why I hadn't inherited his fiery hair - I suppose I had, all along, even though it wasn't visible at a glance.

"Hello," I chirped, smiling at the dark haired man who stood before me. He leant over the wooden counter in front of him, a thick eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Hello..." he mirrored my greeting, the end of his sentence wavering. His voice was a little gruff.

"I'm Claire," I smiled again at him, holding out my right hand. He stared at it, and then slowly withdrew his own from within his trouser pocket.

"Marlin."

His short sentences irritated me slightly, but I chose to ignore that. Perhaps he was shy.

"I'm new here, in the valley."

"Yes," he nodded his head slowly, still eyeing me warily, as if I was some alien creature from outer space.

"I live on the farm," I informed him, keeping my tone light. I was sticking with the shy theory. "I need some crops." I waited for him to reply; and when he didn't, I pretended to cough, hurriedly filling the silence. "What do you have for sale?"

He had just stared at me, green eyes disbelieving. Then, stretching his arms a little, he yawned.

"If it's crops you're wanting, speak to Vesta."

I sat on the small, single, un-made bed, looking out of my window. The darkening sky made the farm appear even more foreign to me. I sighed, falling backwards to lay on my back. Forget Me Not Valley was different to how I had anticipated it to be. Sure, it was quiet, and pretty, and peaceful. The villagers were nice, greeting me pleasantly, some even presenting me with small welcome gifts. Already I had picked out a couple of girls who I could imagine being good friends with in the near future. Hell, I'd even seen a cute boy with silver hair wandering about. The only thing wrong was, farming wasn't all that'd I'd expected it to be. I mean - I was _Claire. _Claire, the city girl. Claire, the lazy school kid. Claire, the only teenager in her whole year to not go to college. Claire, who didn't have a job. Not Claire the farm girl.

My parents loved pointing out all my faults. It didn't actually seemed to bother me, though. I was never eager to get out there and start making money, either, like all the other kids; until I met Jack.

He was, well.. _seriously cool. _The run-down old farm down the road in Mineral Town was a place that nobody had ever dreamed could be revamped - until _Jack _came along. I swear, he turned it around in just a season. Everyone loved him - at one point, I think he even had a fanclub. He made huge amounts of cash from nature alone, and still had time to wander around town flirting, socialising and doing whatever the hell he wanted.

Of course, I immediantly wanted to be like him. Jack seemed impressed with this, when I told him. So impressed, that he even recommended a plot of land in a valley called Forget Me Not that he reckoned I could easily take over. I had jumped at the chance, leaving Mineral Town in a matter of weeks.

For some reason, I had this crazy idea that everything would be exactly like Jack's farm - perfect little gardens of tomatoes, carrots, turnips and onions, growing pleasantly side by side in squares. A barn, built from a rich red oak; even a readily made fence in which I could let my to-be chickens run free in. Of course, MY farm was nothing on Jack's. I don't think that I could even call it a farm - it was more so a rubbish heap.

Rolling over onto my side, I lifted my legs up to push against my chest. A comfort position; I remembered reading something about sleeping habits in one of my Mum's old yoga books. Surprised to feel a droplet of moisture against my eyelashes, I shut my eyes hurriedly. No use in crying; where did that get anyone these days?


	2. Chapter 2

**Ekoaleko **and **Mrs. Story**: Thanks so much for reviewing! I didn't think I was gonna get any reviews, I thought it really sucked. But the reviews you both left encouraged me to get another chapter up fairly quickly. Thanks for reading and sharing your opinions :)

* * *

The white light began to pound against my closed eyelids, aching a little. I opened my eyes, curious to know what this intruding brightness was - and then closed them instantly, momentarily blinded by the too-bright sunshine that had found it's way through my curtains, and onto my pillow. Scrunching up my face in annoyance, I grabbed the pillow from underneath my head, and placed it over my eyes, satisfied that this would assure me a little darkness.

I would lie in for a while. It wasn't like I had anything to do; lazing around the house all day was what I usually did on the weekends. After a few, precious, silent moments passed by, I felt the satisfying pull of sleep claiming me once again. I was almost asleep, once again, lost to the world of dreams, when a sudden clucking sounded nearby.

Alarmed, I sat bolt upright in bed. Rubbing my eyes viciously, I stared around the room. Yellow walls stared back at me. Not blue. Where.. where were my blue walls? This wasn't my room. Confused, I felt my mouth begin to open a little - and then my mind, half drunken with sleep, began to allow reality to trickle slowly back through. Of course, I wasn't in my room. While this little, cabin-like shack was, technically, my room, it wasn't _my room. _I lived in Forget Me Not Valley now. No longer a city girl - I was a farm girl. There were no weekends or lie insfor a farm girl. I had left Mineral Town eight days ago - time to get over it.

Shaking my head, I jumped out of bed, almost banging my head nastily upon the narrow shelf that sat only a little distance from the mattress. I stared at it almost venomously. I would be taking that down, later. Stupid thing. I rummaged around through a small chest of drawers, and, upon locating my brush, yanked it through my hair, walking across the room as I did so. The bathroom was miniture - there hadn't even _been _one when I had first arrived. When I had sweetly asked Takakura exactly how and why he expected me to live without sanitation, he had simply shrugged. Then he'd walked away, scratching his head a little. Personally, I had found this very rude, and so had not talked to him since. Unfortunately, it seemed he preferred it this way.

The hot tap splashed on; the water was just about passable for luke warm. I ran my hands underneath it, enjoying the spraying sensation. Thank God I knew Gotz. If it wasn't for his capability of being able to build something within short notice, I'd have been bathing in the Spring every night. I didn't even want to _think _about what I would have done if I hadn't had a toilet. Urgh.

Once I had finished with the usual morning frolic - washing my face, brushing my hair, cleaning my teeth, getting dressed, and so on, and so forth - I made my way outside, finding no need to lock the door behind me. The Valley was so tiny, and the villagers so incapable of stealing, that I didn't feel worried at all.

* * *

Humming a nameless tune to myself, I wiped my hands clean on the knees of my blue dungarees. Watering crops wasn't all that bad. It hurt my arms a lot at the beginning, but by the end of it, they'd gone past the point of pain. I pushed my sleeves back, examining my skin as I tensed the - very small - muscles there. Perhaps, if I kept all this watering nonsense up, I'd be all nice and toned by the end of it; at the moment, however, my arm was just as soft as it always had been.

I skipped the last few yards over farm land to the chicken coop. It was, just like everything else on 'Claire's Farm,' very small - I only had two chickens at the moment. One of them hadn't even laid a single egg, and it always tried to bite me whenever I attempted to stroke it. Trust me to pick out the Damien of the chicken world. As I collected my second chicken's egg, which it had, so far, laid faithfully every day, I suddenly remembered the clucking noise that had awoken me this morning. Frowning, I looked down at the two noisy chickens at my feet. The coop was quite a distance from my so-called house; it couldn't have been one of _my _chickens that had made the noise. Carefully, I stepped around the yellow coloured feed on the floor, and, leaving the door slightly ajar, walked purposefully around the farm. I squinted against the sun - was it me, or was everything _way _too bright out here in the country?

I couldn't see anything - at least, nothing chicken-like-and-when-I-say-chicken-like-I-don't-mean-one-of-_my_-chickens. Just the crops which I had purchased from Vesta, which had, unsurprisingly, not grown at all yet. The only sign which let me know where they lay, was the damp, risen earth. The large tree that held a few apples stood omniously in the midst of a lonely field - my thoughts quickly shrugged over the idea of owning a few cows. My house, the chicken coop, the pond, the empty stable.. no chickens. Perhaps there actually _wasn't_ a mad chicken on the loose. The clucking noise from this morning had probably been a part of my dream...

But.. wait! There it was! A plump, white object of feathers, pecking dutifully at the ground around it. I'd found it! Putting one foot in front of the other, very softly, I moved slowly towards it, aware that my eyes were widened in concentration - if I moved too fast, it could run away in fright. Chickens could be so _annoying _like that.

As I neared it, the mad chicken looked up; and then shrieked loudly, jumping into the air, pushing itself upwards. It flapped it's stout wings helplessly, managing only to perform a chicken's version of flying. It landed a few feet away. I grinded my teeth, already losing patience. Who's friggin' chicken was this, anyway?! I'd better get some sort of payment for this. Money. 1000G. A cow. A chicken. A bar of chocolate, at the very least.

Getting nearer to the mad one now. Closer.. closer.. it wasn't looking my way.. annnnnnd -

I pounced upon it, wincing as I felt it's sharp talons scratch at the surface of my skin, protesting against my restraint.

"No, you don't," I told it determinedly, squeezing a little tighter, "You're not getting free now, you little - "

"I'd let go, if I were you. You're probably hurting it." An unexpected voice called out from some way behind me.

I dropped the chicken in surprise. Turning around, I was surprised to see the same man who I had attempted to start a conversation with yesterday. _Marlin_, my memory replayed him telling me his name. It was awfully close to the name Merlin - perhaps he was actually a wizard. I would have to ask him sometime.

Marlin had just reached the entrance of my farm, and was striding towards me, annoyance evidently obvious in every crease of his moody face.

"Uh.. hi," I stuttered, watching, a little stunned, as he walked stiffly past me, coaxing the chicken forward by crouching down and... _speaking to it. _What. The. Hell. The chicken looked at him, it's eyes travelling downwards to his hands - it immediantly hopped forwards, towards him.

Right. Definitely a wizard.

"I thought you only grew crops at your farm," I said stonily, unprepared to be friendly to someone who had just _strolled _into my farm, without permission. Technically, he was a trespasser. I could have him sued. Pretending to ignore the fact that he had, quite possibly, saved me from being mauled to death by a mad chicken, I began to visualise a fantastic scene of a courtroom. _Marlin, _my mind played the judges words inside my head, _also known as Merlin, part-time wizard, full-time moody chicken catcher. I now declare you.. guilty._

Feeling the corners of my mouth tense a little, I had to shove my hands quickly inside of my pockets, and pinch harshly at the skin of my thighs from there. Preventing myself from laughing. He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. He'd been rude to me last night, and, judging from his body language, and lack of greeting today, he was also being rude to me now. I would not stand for it.

"We do only grow crops," he held the chicken now, supporting it in what seemed so obviously the right way in his arms, "This is one of Van's..." His voice trailed off. We stared at each other for just a moment, my face blank. Then he raised his eyebrows awkwardly, and walked away from me. I watched as he left my farm the same way in which he had entered.

"Bye, then!" I called loudly after him, letting my frustration at having dealt with such an obnoxious individual leak into my voice. I thought I saw his face flash back to the farm. Oh, good grief, he'd probably heard me. Good job and all. If I saw him again any time soon, I would, forseeably, pass out from awkwardness.


End file.
